New AACN Assessment Tool Standardizes & Personalizes ICU Nurse Onboarding

The difference between an ICU nurse who’s had robust and personalized onboarding and a nurse who hasn’t can affect job satisfaction, patient outcomes, and retention.

The onboarding process is one of the most important steps when hiring nurses. To standardize and ease this process, the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN) released a new ICU Knowledge Assessment Tool that personalizes training. 

Like in the classroom, a one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t deliver the best results. An individualized approach is necessary in today's world, where individuals have diverse learning styles, interests, and skill levels.

The tool enables hospitals to test the specific knowledge of their ICU nurses, and the tailored assessment results can help hospital educators create personalized orientation plans to effectively address specific learning needs.

The assessment randomly generates validated questions in more than 10 areas. The new ICU Knowledge Assessment Tool involves the following:

• Patient Management
• Acute Coronary Syndrome
• Heart Failure
• Managing Oxygenation and Ventilation
• Respiratory Failure and ARDS
• Invasive Ventilation
• Hemodynamics
• Neurologic Assessment
• Fluid and Electrolytes
• Acute Kidney Injury (AKI)
• Nutritional Support
• Glycemic Control
• Transfusion Management
• Multisystem Disorders and Management

By prioritizing personalized learning and development, this tool enhances the onboarding experience for ICU nurses. 

UbiSim’s Connection to Personalized Learning

UbiSim, a nursing virtual reality (VR) training platform, offers customizable scenarios with a diversity of patients. Lead Nurse Educator Christine Vogel, MSN, RN, CHSE, CHSOS, shared, “Our intuitive Editor tool enables content experts to create a variety of scenarios that prioritize diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), tailored to meet the specific requirements of your program. These scenarios are focused on cultivating cultural humility and appreciating diversity, further enriching the learning experience for nurse learners."

Not only is UbiSim focused on diverse learning experiences for nurses, but the platform also meets the needs of diverse patient populations. Christine goes on to say, “As you explore our catalog, you will find that our scenarios incorporate learning objectives aimed at developing sensitive and respectful communication and connection with patients across diverse dimensions, including age, socioeconomic backgrounds, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, cultural values, experiences with stigmatized illnesses, and gender identities (upcoming).”

As healthcare continues to evolve, the need for innovative training solutions like the AACN's ICU Knowledge Assessment Tool and UbiSim's VR training platform becomes ever more critical. These tools not only standardize and personalize the onboarding and training of ICU nurses but also enrich their learning experience, ultimately leading to better patient care.

Are you looking for a way to onboard new nurses or train existing ones? UbiSim is also used in hospitals and prelicensure nursing programs. Reach out to our team for a demo to experience the power of immersive VR in nursing training.